A Simple Solution

It worked again.

A very simple home remedy comes to the rescue once more. And Jaden's earache is alleviated.

About 12 years ago when Caleb was about four, he told me during a Sunday morning church service that he didn't feel well. We walked the block home. (I probably carried him.) He didn't tell me until we got home that he had an earache. And then he got his point across quite graphically. He laid on the floor writhing in pain, and gripping the side of his head while screaming, "My ear, my ear." Pretty good indicator of an earache, wouldn't you say?

I was panicked. It was Sunday. Doctor's office was closed. We had no insurance or other funds to cover a trip to the emergency room. There was no painkiller in the house. We had recently decided to quit using prescription and over-the-counter medications because of their toxic effects on the liver. And I was out of our herbal pain reliever.

What was I going to do? Here was my dear child in extreme pain and all I could do was sit and hold him and wrack my brain for a quick fix. I cried out to the Lord for help. And He brought to mind something that I had either read or heard. I'd never tried it, but since it was the only thing that came to mind, I thought I'd give it a shot.

I sliced the "hairy" root end off of an onion, took a small piece of cotton ball and soaked it in the resulting juice. I then gently twisted the cotton into a pencil shape, retaining as much juice as possible, and placed it in the ear canal. Of course, this was met with some resistance by Caleb (ha! what an understatement!), but I prevailed. I sat and held him as he whimpered a while longer, settled, and then he fell asleep.

When he awakened an hour later, he was fine.... for a few minutes. And then he began holding his other ear and screaming and writhing on the floor. De ja vu. But this time I knew what to do and sprung into action. Again, it wasn't long before he fell asleep in my arms. Again, he slept for an hour. Again, he awakened pain free. That was the end of his earache.

This remedy has worked repeatedly for us over the years. Sometimes we've had to put in more than one onion-soaked cotton "pencil" in the same ear, especially when a child was bigger. And even if the child only complained of one ear hurting, I got to where I just put it in both ears so we wouldn't have that "de ja vu" experience. (I noticed that these earaches would occur when the children had drainage from seasonal allergies or colds, so we worked at preventing those and agressively treating them when they did occur.)

So, when Jaden was screaming and moaning in pain last evening, guess what Abby did? Yep. And it worked.

Isn't the Lord God, Jehovah Raphe ("The Lord Who Heals") good?!